Young Muslim Women in France: Cultural and Psychological Adjustments

Even though France has experienced increasing and inevitable feminization in its immigrant population since 1974, research has tended to ignore the role of immigrant women, especially Muslim women, in the migration process. Public attention has been diverted by concern over such relatively marginal issues as the headscarf affair, and insufficient attention has been paid to the important role Muslim women play in France, especially those coming from Algeria. These women function as cultural mediators between the traditional culture of the sending country and the modern one of the host country. They see themselves as both tradition-bearers and integration proponents. The demands of immigration have given rise to the growth and development of different leaders, among them cultural mediators seeking a bridge between Islam and modernity, economic mediators seeking to establish women in the media and as entrepreneurs, and political mediators who seek access to power at the local level for the immigrants. These new mediators will eventually shape a new generation of female actors very far from the traditional countries of origin, although for the time being they still suffer from the inequality of rights for women and chances in their overall social life.     

An Integrative Brief Treatment Approach for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This article reports on the integrated application of cognitive therapy, transactional analysis techniques, and the behavioral technique of response prevention using self-instructional training and behavioral substitution in a brief therapy approach. These methods were applied in the case of a young man who presented with compulsions to perform repetitive and ordering rituals with the belief that it would prevent his girlfriend from becoming pregnant. A 21-year-old white male who had performed 3 to 5 hours of rituals daily for several years was able to eliminate the majority of his compulsive behaviors and reduce his level of anxiety after eight clinical therapy sessions. Results were maintained at 6-month follow-up. The clear precipitating factors and the unusual maintaining variables for the disorder in the client are described. The author discusses the case in light of current theoretical, therapeutic, and biomedical understandings of the disorder.     

Psychotherapy Integration: Contributions from Lifestyle Theory

The lifestyle theory of intervention is evaluated with respect to its status as an integrated psychotherapy using theoretical integration, technical eclecticism, and the common factors approach as criteria. Because lifestyle theory integrates concepts from evolutionary biology, existential philosophy, cognitive psychology, social learning theory, and various therapeutic models it satisfies preliminary criteria for theoretical integration. To the extent that it provides an internally consistent model and makes use of techniques from disparate schools of psychotherapy, it adopts a technical eclectic approach to intervention. The lifestyle model also appears to qualify as an integrated psychotherapy by virtue of its attention to several common factors in psychotherapy.     

Recognition failure and integration

If a recognition test is followed by a cued recall test then the probability of recognition given recall generally follows the Tulving-Wiseman function. Despite this regularity two types of exceptions have been discovered. Both poor integration and cue overlap causes an observed value of recognition given recall that is higher than predicted. The present study explores the first type of exception by proposing and testing an analytical tool, which emanates from confidence ratings given to recall responses, for relating poor integration directly to variations in the degree of deviation from the function. It is demonstrated that very poor integration produces a deviation above the function, whereas a very good integration produces a deviation below the function. The effect of integration (and cue overlap) is explained by means of a conceptualization cue dependency. Support is also given to the notion that an enhanced variability of goodness of encoding contributes to an enhanced dependence between recall and recognition.     

The Wall: On the psychology of the reunification of Germany

The fall of the Berlin Wall, which separated West Germans and East Germans for decades, led to emotional catastrophe among the reunited peoples. The authors conducted a psychological research program in Berlin to analyze individual and interpersonal processes in the reunification. They describe four categories used to pinpoint different (largely unconscious) levels of coping and defense strategies used to deal with the changes: control, splitting, symbiosis, and integration.Thomas Krauss, Dr. phil., is a family therapist and teaching supervisor. From 1985–1990 he worked as scientific employee at the Free University Berlin. Angelika Fass, Dr. phil., is a family therapist and teaching supervisor. From 1986–1991 she worked as scientific employee (research and lecturer) at the Technical University in Berlin. Reprint requests should be sent to the authors at Markt 2, D-29493 Schnackenburg, Germany.Translation by Ann Brandt.     

RELIGIOUS AND MYSTICAL STATES: A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL

Abstract. This paper first considers the current confusion in categorizing and even describing mystical states, including experiences of God, the Void, and lesser religious experiences. The paper presents the necessity of studying the neuropsychological substrate of such experiences both to understand them in greater depth and to help resolve scholarly confusion in this area. As a prelude to presenting a neuropsychological model, the basic principles of brain organization are reviewed, including hemispheri-city; primary, secondary, and tertiary sensory receptive areas; their motor analogues; prefrontosensorial polarity; and the integration of limbic functioning into cortical activity. A neuropsychological model for mystical states is then presented in terms of differential stimulation and deafferentation of various tertiary sensory association areas, along with integration of various patterns of limbic stimulation.     

Pre-departure language requirements for family reunification

This paper argues that pre-departure language requirements for family reunification are unjustified. Such requirements are assumed to safeguard (1) the non-instrumental cultural interests of citizens of the receiving society and (2) the instrumental language interests of both citizens and immigrants, for democratic life and political participation. The paper explores nationalist and multiculturalist arguments for implementing post-arrival integration to ensure a shared public language but contends that such arguments cannot justify pre-departure language requirements. In addition, instrumental language interests for democratic political life fall empirically short and place undue burdens on immigrants. The case of family reunification poses a unique moral problem, given the vital interest in living with one's family. The paper argues that the linguistic interests of the receiving state, in general, do not outweigh the claim to family reunification.     

Boundaries for career success? How work–home integration and perceived supervisor expectation affect careers

The necessity to actively manage the work–home boundaries has drastically increased. We postulate that work–home integration may affect individuals' subjective career success via its positive effects on work goal attainment and exhaustion. Furthermore, we study perceived supervisor expectation for employee work–home integration as a boundary condition. Our three-wave online survey with 371 employees showed support for the two hypothesized moderated mediation effects. Work–home integration preference is indirectly related to subjective career success: (1) positively via home-to-work transitions and work goal attainment and (2) negatively via home-to-work transitions and exhaustion. Perceived supervisor expectation constrained work–home integration preference's direct effect on home-to-work transitions and indirect effects on subjective career success. Exploratory analysis revealed that exhaustion negatively affected all career success dimensions, whereas work goal attainment was only related to some. Our results indicate that supervisor expectation can override the effect of employee's work–home integration preference on home-to-work transitions which have a double-edged sword effect on subjective career success. Our study contributes to integrating the careers and work–life interface literature and incorporating contextual factors. Furthermore, with the exploration of differential effects on subjective career success, we advance our understanding of this outcome's nomological network.     

Evaluating the integration hypothesis: A meta-analysis of the ICSEY project data using two new methods

The Integration Hypothesis states that acculturating migrants who adopt the integration strategy (i.e. being doubly engaged, in both their heritage culture and in the larger national society) will have better psychological and socio-cultural adaptation than those who adopt any other strategy (Assimilation, Separation or Marginalization). This hypothesis was supported in the original evaluation of the ICSEY project data, using the mean adaptation scores for individuals in the four acculturation clusters. This conclusion was further supported by an analysis that used scores that were derived from the two underlying dimensions. This paper further evaluates this hypothesis meta-analytically using two new methods: Cultural Involvement and Cultural Preference; and Euclidean Distance. The results showed that these two methods provided support for the integration hypothesis, for both psychological adaptation and socio-cultural adaptation. The pattern of relationships was stronger for positive than for negative indicators of adaptation. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.